Without Shrimp
by Brin Londo5
Summary: the cross-ficdom finishes.
1. Default Chapter

Title: Without Shrimp  
  
Author: Brin Londo5  
  
Email: ogreblood@hotmail.com  
  
Rating: Not sure yet, winging this as I go  
  
Summary: Buffy's various ficdom's begin to crash into each other  
  
Disclaimer: All Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel: the Series characters belong to Joss Wheadon and Mutant Enemy. Like so many others, I'm just playing in his sandbox. Archive: Whoever wants it, just please ask first.  
  
Author's Notes: I heartily apologize to BloodyMiri, MadRog, Kantarya, and all the other fic writers who helped inspire this story, and inspired the various Buffys, Spikes, Willows, Xanders, Anyankas, and Taras who collide in this fish-wrap I'm working on.  
  
Xander Harris sighed and slid down the wall, holding his head in his hands. Caleb had been right. He was the one who 'sees things', everything, he just refused to acknowledge what he saw, 90% of the time. This couldn't go on for much longer. Cleveland sucked, at least Sunnydale had been warm, but the bleak winter here made everything everyone had lost that much more unbearable. And he was tired of ignoring what he saw each morning. Buffy's eyes, damp and red, from crying over Spike each night, and refusing to admit that it was Spike she'd been crying about. Willow's face, flushed and angry over her latest fight with Kennedy. Andrew's constant fidgeting as he chickened out of wanting to intercede in the near constant bickering between the Witch and the Brat Slayer. And what he saw in the mirror each morning, the pain etched in his face, not just the eye-patch, but the missing of Anya. It had to end soon, or the Scooby Gang was rapidly going to self-destruct in a messy, well, mess.  
  
"Hey, Xan-man, you OK?" Faith asked, as she knelt by the exhausted carpenter.  
  
"This can't go on, Faith. It just can't. All this is ripping us apart, faster than Dawn can go through a bowl of Cheerio's. It's like the First Evil's winning, even after we beat it."  
  
Faith shook her dark mane out, and sat down next to Xander. "I know whatcha mean, Xan, but what're we gonna do about it? It's gonna take time for B to get over whatever happened down in the Hellmouth between her and Spike, and I think Willow's beginning to realize that Kennedy was just a rebound fling thing. And Andrew REALLY needs to haul himself out of the closet before someone throttles him. You, me, Giles, and Robin are about the only ones who seem to be doing ok, here."  
  
"Keep telling yourself that, Faith. Just keep telling yourself that. You and Robin, ok, maybe, but even I'm falling apart, and Giles seems to be a bit more Ripper than Rupert these days, what with him training Vi and the others in between his trips back and forth between here and London. And last night, I had to keep Andrew and Willow both from chewing out Dawn for hacking into Pentagon encryption files again. She was looking for something in the Initiative's Red Files. Don't know what, don't care, but if the Feds trace her back here, we could all be screwed."  
  
"So, say you're right. Back to my question. What do we do about it?"  
  
"I don't know. I really don't. I just." He paused and closed his good eye. "I just wish we all could have the chance to sit down and talk with ourselves, see what things could have been if we'd just made other choices along the way, or had different circumstances, so we could see what we were doing wrong, and what we could have done right. A chance to see what we can change now, to stop all this."  
  
A shadow fell over Xander and Faith, causing the pair to look up at the blue-skinned visage of D'Hoffryn, Lord of Arash'maharr.  
  
"Wish Granted, Alexander Lavelle Harris."  
  
TBC. 


	2. D'Hoffrynn's gift

Disclaimer: All Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel: the Series characters belong to Joss Wheadon and Mutant Enemy. Like so many others, I'm just playing in his sandbox. Author's Notes: I heartily apologize to BloodyMiri, MadRog, Kantarya, and all the other fic writers who helped inspire this story, and inspired the various Buffys, Spikes, Willows, Xanders, Anyankas, and Taras who collide in this mess I'm working on.  
  
"I am most put out with you, Xander Harris, but I feel that just this once, I will actually intervene, and grant you your wish. Been quite a while since I've done any field work, one of the prices of success, I suppose, all the desk-work."  
  
Xander looked up at the chief Vengeance Demon, confusion warring with disbelief in his head. Faith jumped up and pulled a stake, shouting for him to back off or die.  
  
"Dear girl, so much like your sister Slayer, that pitiful chunk of dead tree cannot kill me. I am D'Hoffrynn, Lord of Arash'Maharr, the realm of Vengeance." D'Hoffrynn smirked in amusement at the dark Slayer.  
  
"He's right, Faith, Vengeance Demons can only be killed if you destroy their talisman, first." Xander groaned.  
  
"And MY talisman IS Arash'Maharr, It would be very difficult for the young lady here to destroy an entire dimensional plane. But amusing to watch."  
  
"Just WHAT is going on down.here..?" Buffy asked, as she, Willow, and the brigade of Slayers came rushing down the stairs.  
  
"Ah, good to see you once more, miss Rosenberg, and you as well, miss Summers. How is your sister?"  
  
"In trouble, as usual. What do you want, D'Hoffrynn?" Buffy scowled.  
  
"Well, that's not very nice, miss Summers, I was just trying to make polite conversation while I grant young mister Harris' wish." The blue-skinned entity actually looked rather hurt.  
  
"You made a WISH around him, Xander? Are you nuts?"  
  
"HEY! I didn't know he was there, he just popped in right after I said it!"  
  
"Said what, exactly?" Willow asked.  
  
D'Hoffrynn smiled, and said in an exact imitation of Xander's voice, "I just wish we all could have the chance to sit down and talk with ourselves, see what things could have been if we'd just made other choices along the way, or had different circumstances, so we could see what we were doing wrong, and what we could have done right. A chance to see what we can change now, to stop all this."  
  
Faith looked goggle-eyed at him. "Dude, that's just creepy."  
  
"Why, thank you, child." The Vengeance Demon said, looking rather pleased at the inadvertent compliment.  
  
"Whoa, you said, 'Wish granted', exactly HOW did you grant my wish, D'Hoffrynn?" Xander asked.  
  
"Simple, my dear mr. Harris. The full length mirror in your room is now a portal to the Magic Box. In there, I've arranged for a number of the doors to open to alternate realities, parallel universes where each of you made different conditions, or others made other decisions that altered choices each of you would have made. There you can talk amongst your other selves, in order to sort things out for your reality here."  
  
"The world Without Shrimp. Anya talked about this, with me, Wills, and Tara." Xander said quietly.  
  
"Indeed mr. Harris, at times you are not nearly as dense as you try to act. At times, I'm almost glad you almost became my Son-In-Law.""  
  
Willow blanched and whispered Tara's name, causing Kennedy to glare at her and move to the other side of the mass of girls in the living room.  
  
"Wait, wait a minute, the Magic Box was destroyed when the Hellmouth collapsed, that's' not going to be of much use to us." Buffy stated, poking a finger at D'Hoffrynn.  
  
"The Magic Box in THIS reality was destroyed. The mirror portal leads to another Magic Box. One where Sunnydale isn't a gaping crater. Or isn't yet, this store is located three years in the past."  
  
The realization slowly sunk in, and Buffy, Willow and Xander slowly sat down on the couch. Three years ago.where Tara, Anya, and Buffy's mom were still alive.  
  
TBC. 


	3. Reactions

Disclaimer: All Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel: the Series characters belong to Joss Wheadon and Mutant Enemy. Like so many others, I'm just playing in his sandbox. Author's Notes: I heartily apologize to BloodyMiri, MadRog, Kantarya, and all the other fic writers who helped inspire this story, and inspired the various Buffys, Spikes, Willows, Xanders, Anyankas, and Taras who collide in this mess I'm working on. Author's Notes (2): And further, I'd like to apologize that these chapters are so short, so far, and that it's so long between updates. I have to upload these via a friends computer, lacking internet capability at the moment.  
  
Without Shrimp, ch. 3  
  
Xander, Buffy, Willow, Dawn, and Faith sat in Xander's room, staring at the mirror mounted to his closet door. The silence and tension in the room was so thick, Dawn wondered if Buffy's axe, oops, sorry, 'Scythe', could cut it.  
  
"Screw this. Let's do it." She said, walking forward, and stepped through, despite Xander, Buff, and Willow's yells of 'Dawnie, no!' The reflective glass rippled like the surface of a lake, and she was gone. With that, Buffy grabbed the Scythe and ran after her, with Willow, Xander, and Faith following.  
  
Buffy felt a sensation like a cross between being splashed with ice water, an electric tingle, and the feeling you got when a roller coaster did the drop-off; and stepped through into somewhere she never expected to see again in all her days.  
  
The Magic Box.  
  
In front of her, Dawn knelt on the floor, vomiting rather messily onto the polished hardwood floor, much to the consternation of the shopkeeper. Anya Immanuella Emerson, the mortal guise of the Vengeance Demon Anyanka.  
  
"Oh, for pity's sake, I just finished sweeping that floor, whoever you .Dawn? Is that YOU?" Anya asked the retching teen. "Why aren't you in school, young lady, or at home in bed if you're sick?"  
  
"You, you remember me?" Dawn asked weakly.  
  
"Yes, I remember you, Buffy's annoying little sister, of course!"  
  
"Hey!" Dawn yelled, then paused and pulled Anya down into a fierce hug. "Don't ever change, Anya! God, we missed you!"  
  
"Huh? We?" The ex-demon wondered. Well, just before she was caught up in a group hug by her and Buffy both.  
  
Faith stood next to Xander, with Willow on his other side, as the once-proclaimed 'Zeppo' stood like a rock, mute. Faith turned to Willow and quietly asked "Are you gonna point out they're all kneeling in Dawn's vomit, or will I?"  
  
At the sound of the unfamiliar voice (coming from a direction no-one had been occupying the moment before), Anya looked up.  
Xander and Anya locked gazes, and Anya wondered for a split second how Xander not only had gotten into the store without her noticing, but why he wasn't at his NEW job at the construction company. Then she noticed the eye patch, and his worn, roughened appearance.  
  
Anya pulled out of Buffy and Dawns hug, then stepped towards the future version of her boyfriend. "Xander?"  
  
The one-eyed carpenter pulled Anya into a bone crushing embrace, then the confused ex-vengeance demon found herself all but holding the man upright as he sobbed into her hair.  
  
TBC. 


	4. Debates

Disclaimer: All Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel: the Series characters belong to Joss Wheadon and Mutant Enemy. Like so many others, I'm just playing in his sandbox. Author's Notes: I heartily apologize to BloodyMiri, MadRog, Kantarya, and all the other fic writers who helped inspire this story, and inspired the various Buffys, Spikes, Willows, Xanders, Anyankas, and Taras who collide in this mess I'm working on. Author's Notes (2): And further, I'd like to apologize that these chapters are so short, so far, and that it's so long between updates. I have to upload these via a friend's computer, lacking internet capability at the moment.  
  
Without Shrimp, ch. 4  
  
Awkward glances kept being passed back and forth between the various people assembled in the Magic Box, that evening. Extra chairs had been brought in, and puzzling phone calls had summoned Buffy from class, as well as her mother (Joyce) and her sister (Dawn), Buffy's college room-mate Willow Rosenberg, her ex-Watcher Rupert Giles, Xander Harris, and the chipped master vampire Spike.  
  
To their shock, the persons who had called had been another, older Buffy, as well as Willow, Faith (hey, wasn't she in prison?), another Dawn, and a more mature seeming Xander, although this one wore an eye patch over one eye. From the back room, an additional, angry-looking Giles quickly joined them. Questions were asked, answers only their own selves would have known were given, identities were established, and the younger dawn had been rushed into the bathroom to throw up, as well.  
  
"Dawn, I think you acted precipitously in using the portal. Just what WERE you thinking, that you could change history? None of our memories have changed, so obviously, all you've done is create some sort of alternate timeline for our younger counterparts." Giles began, and then the slightly younger Giles joined in.  
  
"Giles," wince, "do not be too hard on Dawn, after all, if we could go back another two years and rescue Jenny from Angelus, can we honestly say we might not have done so? Or find some way of undoing Buffy's Cruciamentum?" The earlier Giles asked.  
  
"Perhaps you're right, but it still was not a wise move. Although none of us are experiencing any physical discomfort, both Dawns seem rather ill. Possibly because of certain. aspects we're not able to discuss at this moment."  
  
Joyce stood up, outraged at that. "Rupert, if you know why Dawn's sick, I think as her mother, I have a right to know! Why would you, of all people, refuse to let me know what's wrong with my little girl?"  
  
Both Buffys silently gripped the hand of their individual Dawns, one pair worried, one pair knowing. The older Dawn dropped her head, unable to look at the mother she came back in time to see.  
  
"It's because," she whispered, "It's because I'm the Key. It's because we're not really your daughter." Buffy hugged Dawn, as their younger versions voiced shock and outrage.  
  
"What in the hell is going on, Rupert?" Joyce demanded. "Why is she saying that?"  
  
"Because it's true, Mom," the elder Buffy quietly said. "A group of monks called the Order of Dagon took this mystical Key energy, and some of my blood, and made Dawn. Then they gave us all, ALL of us, Dawn included, fake memories. We're not sure of the exact date, but six months ago, your time, Dawn didn't exist."  
  
"That's nonsense, Buffy! Dawn's just as much my little girl as you are! I remember giving birth to her, what she wore for her third birthday party, how much you hated it when she'd sneak into your room to read your diary! And if she didn't exist before then, then why is she in the family album?"  
  
"I don't know how, Joyce, all we know is that the monks used the infinite power of the Key to alter reality slightly, including all physical evidence that she would have had a prior existence to Buffy's freshman year of college."  
  
"Then, biologically, Buffy's her mom?" Younger Willow asked. "I mean, if she's sort of cloned from Buffys blood, then that makes Buffy Dawns mom, right?"  
  
"No, as far as we're concerned, Mom's my mom, Buffy's just my annoying older sister,"  
  
"Hey!" in stereo.  
  
"at least, that's what we remember and feel, so that's the way it is. It'd be way too weird to call Buffy mom" Dawn 1 said.  
  
"It's hard to take in, Mom, but it's true. Although, in my memories of this year, you didn't find out until later. It didn't change the way you felt about Dawn then. does it now?"  
  
A pause stretched in the room.  
  
"I wouldn't be much of a mother if it did, now would I ?" Joyce said ruefully. Older Dawn ran up and hugged Joyce as fiercely as Xander had hugged Anya three hours before.  
  
"Mom, go see a doctor about your headaches. NOW! Get a CAT scan, a MRI, just do it, don't put it off, do it before it's too late! I don't want to loose you this time around!" she whispered in her mother's ear. "Get a different doctor, one in L.A., and have him give you medication to prevent an aneurysm. Buffy needs someone to live for besides me, soon!" Older Dawn gave her mother one last hug, and said louder, "God, Mommy, I missed you!" and as her voice cracked, she turned and ran back through the doorway leading to her present.  
  
Joyce sat shakily down and hugged both her Buffy and the younger Dawn, sharing strength with both. "I don't care what ANYONE says," she whispered to her youngest, "You're MY little girl, and you always will be." Dawn sniffled and told her mother that she loved her, too. Younger Willow joined in on the hug, and Xander, too, then their older counterparts joined in on what morphed into a big group Scooby hug.  
  
The slightly younger Giles looked on in discomfort, and at that point the more experienced Giles made a decision. Dawn had altered the timeline by arranging this meeting, even if it only resulted in an alternate reality and not in changing the past he himself had lived through, he was determined to save Buffy this time around.  
  
"Spike, Rupert, a word, please."  
  
"Yeah, Watcher, what'd you want?" Spike said with a raise of his scarred eyebrow. He leaned against the wall and pulled out a cigarette, glared the younger Giles right in the eye, and lit up.  
  
"I just want to ask you one simple question. I already know the answer, but my younger self needs to hear it. AND," he said, looking at his earlier self, "He needs to believe it."  
  
"And what would that be, Rupes?"  
  
"Do you love Buffy? Would you die for her? If you knew it would save her life, or Dawns, or Joyce's?"  
  
"You're bleedin daft."  
  
"The truth, Spike"  
  
"Yeah, I love Buffy." He almost snarled. "Been feelin' that way for a while now. As for the Nibblet, she's like the lil' sis I never had, and Joyce's like me own mum, Watcher. What's with the twenty questions?"  
  
"Because within the year, Buffy is going to face a foe unlike that any Slayer has ever faced. An enraged Hell goddess, named Glorificus. She wants to kill Dawn, and use her blood to rip open the walls of reality, and destroy the universe. Buffy stopped her, in our past, but she dies in the attempt."  
  
The younger Giles felt his heart skip a beat. The girl he considered his own, dead?  
  
"You ARE daft, watcher. The bint's right there, in the touchy-feely fest goin' on over there. If she's dead, it didn't take." Spike said.  
  
"Buffy died, and stayed that way for almost five entire months. At your own count, one hundred forty-seven days, before Willow used the Urn of Osiris and her skill in the Dark Arts to resurrect Buffy. She had a choice, kill her own sister to save the Universe, or take her own life."  
  
"What do I do?"  
  
"You mean what do WE do, Spike. I won't let Buffy die, not if I can help it." The younger Giles said. "What you do, Spike, is remember, so that my younger counterpart here can eliminate Glory's human host, so that Glory herself dies with her host- body."  
  
"Now we know you ARE daft, did living on the Hellmouth for five years drive us insane?" the younger Giles asked. "We can't kill a human being!"  
  
"We can. We did.Ripper. Buffy used the Hammer of the Troll-God, Olaf, to pummel Glory so badly she reverted to her human form. I.took matters into my own hands. It was too late, but I, We, prevented Glory's inevitable return. "  
  
"Surely there is some other way-"  
  
"No. There isn't. Glory is insane, and obsessed with returning to her own reality, to the point that she doesn't care that her own reality would be destroyed along with the rest of the universe. She has to be destroyed."  
  
"In that case, to hell with the chip. If I REALLY wanted to kill someone, I can think of a hundred different ways to kack the bitch to pull it off without settin' off this chunk o' tin in me head." Spike said, shifting into game-face.  
  
"I won't allow it-"  
  
"YES, you WILL, or Buffy will DIE, damn it!" Ripper hissed at his younger self. "Spike is our best bet to kill Glory before anyone else can get hurt, and you are not only going to let him do it, but you will keep Buffy from killing him in retaliation! If Glory dies, Buffy will not, and Willow will not use the Urn of Osiris to resurrect her, the balance will not be unaligned, and the First Evil will not rise! Sunnydale will NOT be destroyed, and it will be because we did NOT have to bury our only daughter!"  
  
Giles sobered at this realization, and Spike took the opportunity to ask the elder Watcher "So, what's the bloke's real name?"  
  
"- " Giles scowled. "Bloody hell! There's a curse attached to Glory's human form, any mortal who learns the secret forgets within minutes. I'll need to go back, write it down, and return, otherwise I'll forget. No, wait. Ben something, an intern over at Sunnydale General. Black hair, red sports car."  
  
"Fine. I'll scope it out, I think a block of plastique and a mercury switch will work wonders."  
  
As Spike grabbed his Army surplus blanket and sauntered off, The younger Giles glared at his future self and asked, "And just why are we letting that fiend go murder someone, Buffy and the Universe aside?"  
  
"Because after the fall of Sunnydale, I realized that I was transferring my hatred of Angelus towards Spike. Spike helped us patrol after Buffy was gone, he protected Dawn always, he willingly sacrificed his own life to save the world, and before he did that, he did something I'd considered impossible for any vampire to do."  
  
"And that would be?"  
  
"He willingly regained his soul." 


	5. Red and Glinda and Red

Disclaimer: All Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel: the Series characters belong to Joss Wheadon and Mutant Enemy. Like so many others, I'm just playing in his sandbox. Author's Notes: I heartily apologize to BloodyMiri, MadRog, Kantarya, and all the other fic writers who helped inspire this story, and inspired the various Buffys, Spikes, Willows, Xanders, Anyankas, and Taras who collide in this mess I'm working on. Author's Notes (2): And further, I'd like to apologize that these chapters are so short, so far, and that it's so long between updates. I have to upload these via a friend's computer, lacking internet capability at the moment.  
  
Without Shrimp, ch. 5  
  
Sunnydale, 2000.  
  
"Mom, what're you doing?"  
  
"After I have that MRI, I'm seeing my lawyer about making a Will. If anything happens later on, I want you and Dawn to be okay." Just in case Dawn's warning came true anyway.  
  
"Oh, god, Mom! I just realized! Where was the Tara from the future? And you? Where -" Then she knew. The other Buffy and Dawn, why they seemed to hover over Joyce so anxiously, as if she was going to disappear like a popped soap bubble. And why the future Willow got so pale when Tara showed up, late for the Scooby meeting.  
  
The Magic Box  
  
"So, I- I take it you k- kind of m- missed me?"  
  
"Tara," Willow said, looking sadly over to her younger self, "You're the light in my life, you were my anchor when things went bad. You were the reason I straightened out after Rack addicted me to Dark Magiks, even if it was only because you left me because of my problem."  
  
"I l- left you?"  
  
"You had to. I was using magic too much, for the wrong reasons. Quick fixes, doing things that should have been done in their own time, at their own pace."  
  
"Wait, magic isn't like a drug, how could we get addicted to it?" Younger Willow asked, worried sounding.  
  
"As far as I can tell, Rack was somehow tainting the power, warping it to cause an addictive effect. And we never really needed the power he gave us anyway, except in our own minds. We brought Buffy back, we teleported a Hellgod against her will, we activated every single potential Slayer in existence into Slayerhood. Well, we had to tap into the magic of the Scythe of the Slayers for THAT."  
  
"We're THAT powerful?"  
  
"Willow, I told you, your power shines through your aura." Tara said with a smile. Then the smile faded. "Okay, so that's the good news. Now for the bad. Tell me, Willow, how much longer do we have? You're not that much older than MY Willow, but you look at me so sadly, and you're on the edge of crying. You never said that we broke up, so, when do I die?"  
  
The redheaded wicca bowed her head, and the tears she'd been fighting spilled over. Tara reached across and pulled the older version of her lover to her.  
  
"We- we have- two- two years! Two short years, and a stray bullet from Warren Mears, of all people, goes through our window, and-"  
  
"NO!" The younger Willow screamed, and ran outside, also in tears.  
  
Present day Willow stood up, about to go after 2000 Willow, when Tara laid her hand on present day Willow's wrist.  
  
"No, Willow. This is something your other you needs to work out for yourself. The question is, now that she knows, will MY Willow have second thoughts about loving m- me now that we know that it isn't going to go anywhere?"  
  
"Tara McKay, don't you EVER let me hear you say that about what we had! I love you with my entire being! And one more thing, (I don't remember if we have done this yet, your time, so bear with me), you are NOT a demon! That's just bull-crap your father fed you to keep you under his thumb! Heck, Spike proved it, when he punched you in the nose to check, and his chip definitely went off!"  
  
"It did? I- I mean, it- it will?"  
  
Willow smiled. "Yeah, baby, it did, and it will, if he ever does it, this time around." She reached over and held Tara (Warm, living, breathing Tara! Goddess, how I missed her!) close.  
  
"I'm going to have to thank Spike, then, which is kind of funny, to thank someone for hitting you." Tara smiled. "But th- that's Sunnydale for you." Then she got a serious look on her face. "Willow, I have two questions I need to ask you. And no side-stepping or going all Avoid-y Willow on me. Promise?" Willow bit her lip nervously. She was afraid of where this might be going. "P-PROMISE, Willow?"  
  
"o- okay, Tara.." Willow replied, studying her own shoes in seeming fascination.  
  
"Goddess, I don't know which of these is the harder of the two to ask." Deep breath. "Okay. Did Warren eventually pay for murdering me? Did he go to jail?" Willow seemed to shrink in on herself. "Willow? He didn't go free did he? Did he escape, or something? Willow?"  
  
"He- he didn't go to jail, Tara.. but he paid." Willow's voice was all but a whisper.  
  
"Did Buffy? Or Spike? Did they?" She couldn't bring herself to say the words 'kill him'.  
  
"i did"  
  
No. She couldn't have heard that. Willow , her Willow, sweet, gentle Willow couldn't have..  
  
"i killed warren mears, tara." Willow whispered. "i'm sorry if this hurts you, tara, but he deserved to die for hurt- killing you." Her voice began to regain strength as she kept talking. "He took away everything in my life that was innocent and good, and I know I had no right to do it, but Buffy wouldn't see past the fact that he was human, even if he was a murderer, and Spike was gone, so he couldn't do it, so I had to reach down into the darkest part of my soul, and-" Willow crumpled at Tara's feet, crying, knowing that Tara, sweet, gentle Tara, Dawnie's substitute Mom, could never forgive her for that.  
  
Warm gentle arms wrapped around Willow's shoulders. Willow looked up into Tara's worried gaze. Honey scented lips brushed across her temple, the lightest of kisses.  
  
"Willow, listen to me. I love you. Do you hear me? I love you. You were hurting, grieving, and none of your friends could make it better, Buffy was refusing to help. Sometimes I think Xander's comic-book sensibilities rubbed off too much onto Buffy. BUT, " she said with a mommy-type glare, "You're right, what you did was wrong. We both know this. But I forgive you. I know I probably would have done..whatever it was you did to him, in your place, if he'd shot you, instead."  
  
"I love you, Tara." Willow murmured into Tara's shoulder.  
  
"Willow?" At the red head's murmured 'm-hmmm?', she whispered, "H- have .. is there anyone in your life now? If I'm not there, anymore, I don't want you to be alone. You have too much love to give, Willow. And no-one should be alone. I- is there someone?"  
  
"Well, there..was someone. But Kennedy, well, I'm beginning to realize she's just a rebound kind of thing. She pretty much just shoved her way into my life, and she's so self-centered, and she's nothing at ALL like you. And I'm beginning to get So tired of all the fights."  
  
"Are you sure, Willow? I mean, are you fighting with her just because she does things y'know, not like Tara would have done?" Tara asked.  
  
"No, it's deeper than that. We just don't.. mesh as well."  
  
Tara got quiet. Then she softly asked, "and Xander? Why not him. You still love him, I know, don't deny that."  
  
"But- but Tara, hello? Gay now?" Willow asked, shocked that her lover would ask that. Then Tara began laughing, soft chuckles.  
  
"Oh, Willow, sometimes you can be so innocent. Goddess, I love you. But Wills, that is the one thing you've said that I always had to fight laughing over. Sexuality doesn't work that way, my love, it's not like a switch you can flip, from straight to gay, like the power switch on your lap-top." She sat up, holding Willow by the shoulders, looking straight into her eyes. "I know you love me, Willow, I never, ever doubt that, but you loved Oz as much as you loved me, remember?" As Willow started to object, she continued. "Don't deny it, my Willow-tree, I was there for that, remember? I remember the struggle you made over the choice between Oz and me. You loved us both, equally, and you could have just as easily chosen him." Willow started to object, but Tara cut her off. "Don't deny it, Willow. And I know you love Xander. You told me about the whole Fluke incident, remember? If he hadn't ignored you all those years, you two would probably be together. And you'd probably be scoping out other girls at the mall, along with him, like you told me you used to secretly do back in High- School."  
  
"See, Tara, gay!" Willow said, triumphantly.  
  
"No, Willow, Bi. You're bisexual, not straight, not gay, you're Bi. You just feel that it's wrong to be in love with more than one person at a time, and you've subconsciously extended that to include perceptions of orientation as well. Buffy is studying psychology, too, right? She could have told you that, except she's trying to not psychoanalyze her friends."  
  
"But-"  
  
"Look, I'm not saying you and Xander need to jump into bed together, not right away, but once he stops mourning Anya, you and he might start to have feelings for each other once again. If you do, be honest with yourself, my love; don't cut yourself off from love because of some memory of me. I love you too much to want to see you alone needlessly."  
  
Willow thought back to Xander's words atop Kingman's Bluff, when he stopped her from destroying the world. When the chips were down, he'd bared his very soul to her, and he'd meant every word he'd said. Including the four words that had stopped her in her tracks. 'I love you, Willow." When she'd come back from England, they'd steadfastly ignored the words, especially after Kennedy, but the words remained.  
  
"Tara, I love you. I'll always love you. And I'm glad I finally got to make peace with, well, us. And losing us. I missed you, and I'll always miss you. But I think we need to go find YOUR Willow, before something happens to her."  
  
"Okay." And the two walked to the door holding hands.  
  
Ben walked out to his Jaguar, trying to ignore the feeling SHE wanted out again. Luckily, SHE was probably less likely, since it was raining, and SHE hated getting her hair wet. Glory. Glorificus, the Hell God he had to share his body with. It was only recently SHE'd been able to access enough power to transform his body into hers when she took over, before then, he'd though he was suffering from multiple personality disorder, or something.  
  
He put his key into the lock, turned it, opened the door, then slid into the drivers seat. The car started, and he put the jag into reverse..  
  
The explosion thundered across the wet hospital parking lot. Bits of burning metal and fiberglass rained down to the pavement.  
  
And a blond-haired vampire slid the radio-controlled detonator back into the pocket on his duster. The chip had barely twinged at all, the trap had been laid hours before, and pressing a button had no intrinsically harmful connotation, when he wasn't directly pointing a weapon at someone, or physically attacking them.  
  
"Sod the mercury switch. This was more satisfying." Spike lit his cigarette, and strolled off into the rainy night.  
  
TBC 


	6. realizations

Disclaimer: All Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel: the Series characters belong to Joss Wheadon and Mutant Enemy. Like so many others, I'm just playing in his sandbox.  
  
Without Shrimp, ch. 6  
  
Joyce opened up the door, and held it open for the soaking wet forms of Tara and the Willow from the future.  
  
"Tara, Willow, what's going on? Why is our Willow upstairs in Buffy's room, crying her eyes out?"  
  
"Joyce," Tara softly said, looking Buffy's mother directly in the eyes, "haven't you asked yourself why WE weren't with Buffy, Giles, and the others when they came back to this time?" Joyce looked away, not wanting to answer. "That's right Joyce, we're not there. Not where, or when, they're from. You, me, Anya, Spike, we're all gone."  
  
"Willow, is this true? We're ALL-?" So that was why future Dawn told her to go see a doctor about her headaches? "Even Spike?"  
  
Willow bowed her head. "Yes. You- passed on later this year." And so does Buffy, she quietly added to herself. "We thought with the tumor removed, everything was going to be all right, but then one day, Buffy comes home and finds you-" she sniffled and forced herself to continue, "she finds you on the couch. An aneurysm. A blood vessel burst, the coroner told us you died almost instantly. Tara- Tara died from a stray shot from some ones gun, and Anya and Spike-"  
  
Tara placed her hand on Willow's shoulder.  
  
"There was a great battle last year. Last year, my time, I mean. The First Evil decided that since I had brought Buffy back from the dead, the Slayer bloodline was off-balance enough that it's minions could finally destroy the line of the Slayers, by killing off all of the potential Slayers, then Faith, then Buffy herself."  
  
"What do you MEAN, you brought Buffy back from the dead? I thought Xander gave her mouth-to-mouth after the master-" oh. oh, no. "She dies, doesn't she. My little girl-"  
  
"I'm sorry Joyce, she died saving Dawn's life from the Hell Goddess Glory. I had to find and use the Urn of Osiris to-"  
  
"Well, you won't this time around Red." Spike said, from the doorway of the house. "No Glory, no dead Buffy. I just took care of that." He tossed a small black metal box onto the floor. A radio-controlled detonator switch. " I just came to say goodbye to ye, mum, that's all. Once the Slayer finds out I can, and always could kill, even with this blasted chip in me head, she'll be itching to put my good-looking hide to a dusty end. But at least she'll be alive to do it. You won't have to bury Buff. No mother should have to bury their own children." He turned and started to walk out into the rain.  
  
"Spike, wait!' he kept walking. "Spike! Spike, come in." His mouth dropped open, and the cigarette fell out, to sizzle out in the puddle he stood in. He turned to look at Joyce, who stood in the doorway, holding it open for him. "I have hot cocoa.."  
  
"Bloody hell, " he muttered, "Gonna end up wet AND dusty, once the Slayer finds out.." He shrugged out of the waterlogged duster as he stepped into the living room. "Not a good idea, letting a killer like me in again, mum. I just said I'd killed that Glory bint, and you act like I just said I'd took Dawn out for cookies and ice cream. I'm a killer, a demon, EVIL, with a capital 'E'. Why can't you ever seem to get that?"  
  
Future Willow spoke up. "Because neither Spike the demon, or William the Bloody Awful Poet could stand to see the Summers women hurt. You constantly put your own unlife on the line for my best friend, you went out and got yourself a soul for her, because you thought she deserved it, you even DIED for her, Spike. Hardy the actions of the kind of evil fiend you pretend to be."  
  
"A SOUL? Like the great, angsty Poof? Bollocks, woman! You ARE daft!"  
  
"Spike, listen to me. You can't leave, someone needs to be here for Buffy and Dawn, and whether Xander likes it or not, you're one of the Scooby's now." Joyce said, and both Willow and Tara nodded at that. "Spike. William. Chances are, I may not be here, soon. From what Willow told me, there's something wrong, and no matter what we do, I may not make it. I want you to be here for them, they're going to need you."  
  
"Joyce, we have to go see about Willow, she needs Tara, right now." Willow said, and the pair headed up the stairs.  
  
Willow gasped at seeing Buffy's old room, intact, just as she remembered it. The Willow from 'now' was curled up, rocking in Buffy's arms, making sniffling and whimpering noises. Buffy raised a tear-stained face to glare at the Willow from her (?) future.  
  
"What the hell did you tell her, Willow?" Buffy demanded.  
  
Tara climbed onto the bed, and held both the Slayer and her lover. "The truth, Buffy. Just the truth. Two years from now, I'll be dead. Murdered. Shhh, Willow. I'm still here, I'm not gone yet."  
  
"WHO? For gods sake, tell me who! Some demon? A vamp? Tell me who, I'll make sure they can't hurt you!"  
  
"No, no you won't, Buffy. You won't, because it hasn't happened yet, and because the person who kills me is a human being. You can't punish someone for something they haven't done yet."  
  
"A- a human?"  
  
"To be fair, Buffy, you couldn't do anything, then, you'd just been shot, yourself.. You almost died. You would have, if I hadn't saved your life in the ER. Not all the bad guys are demons, Buffy. Some are ordinary human beings." And I became one of them, Willow mentally added.  
  
"And not all demons are intrinsically bad. Spike seems to be changing, for the better. He's not nearly as snarky as he was when I first met him." Tara added.  
  
"He's a vampire, Tara. He has no soul. He tried to kill me with a broken bottle, once." Younger Willow added, with a sniffle. "He can't change."  
  
"You won't think that, once he saves Xander's life from Caleb." Older Willow retorted.  
  
"Wait a minute, Spike hates Xander! He wouldn't save Xander's life." Buffy added, confused.  
  
"He's changing, Buffy. He's not the same Spike who came to kill you on Parent-Teacher night, and by the end, he'll be one of the good guys. You considered him your champion, and chose him over Angel. Before he died, you even admitted to him how you feel for him."  
  
"What, total and utter disgust?"  
  
"No, Buffy, let's just say, that in two or three years, your feelings toward Spike are closer in tune to what happened in my 'Will Be Done' spell than what you're telling yourself you feel right now." Older Willow laughed. "Spike loves you, Buffy. Not in a human way, right now, but he does love you. He proved it, even to me. He DIED for you, Buffy. That should be a big sign, right there."  
  
"But Angel said-"  
  
"Angel was talking about Angelus, and most other vampire's. Spike's different."  
  
"Well, he's certainly a freak." Buffy said with an almost growl. "You mean, he and I-"  
  
"Not so much in the openly dating kind of way, more like in the sneaking around, having hot, sweaty sex, being afraid of telling your friends kind of way." She let that sink in. "To be truthful, we probably would have freaked. We did for a while, until he saved Xander's life. You removing his chip was also not in the approval list, but he'd already gotten the soul, by then."  
  
"Spike got a SOUL? What, did he hunt down that gypsy clan, and harass them until they cursed him, too?"  
  
"No, he did it for you. It wasn't a curse, it didn't have any catch- 22 flaws, he hunted it down and got it for you. He thought you deserved it." She looked over to where Tara and her younger self cuddled with each other. "It's kind of sad, though. You never admitted to him how you felt until the end."  
  
"What, when he supposedly sacrifices his life to save me?"  
  
"No. When he sacrificed his life, to save us all."  
  
"Alright, mum, I'll stay the summer, long enough to see if you're all right." Spike said to Joyce.  
  
"And then?"  
  
"And then, I might just go to see a demon in Africa, about something Buffy needs, maybe. It all depends on Buffy, though, doesn't it?"  
  
TBC. 


	7. Four Dawns and a Scooby

Disclaimer: All Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel: the Series characters belong to Joss Wheadon and Mutant Enemy. Like so many others, I'm just playing in his sandbox.  
  
Author's Notes: I heartily apologize to BloodyMiri, MadRog, Kantarya, Kallysten, and all the other fic writers who helped inspire this story, and inspired the various Buffys, Spikes, Willows, Xanders, Anyankas, and Taras who collide in this mess I'm working on.  
  
Without Shrimp, ch. 7  
  
The Magic Box, Tuesday  
  
Giles and Anya looked askance at the sight over at the Scooby research table. Younger Dawn and Older Dawn sat at the table, intently discussing matters with.. two OTHER Dawn Summers'. One who carried a set of wooden stakes, and one whose arms showed numerous tiny scars from elbow to wrist.  
  
"Okay, let me get this straight. Even though I'm sort of Buffy's clone, I didn't get turned into a Slayer when Buffy and Willow activated all the Potentials, but in your reality, I (or you) DID? SO not fair!" Older Dawn said.  
  
"It's a sort of fifty-fifty kinda thing, I guess, since we are half Buffy, half The Key.." Slayer-Action Dawn said. "After all, according to Merrick, Buffy wasn't supposed to have been a Potential in the first place. That's why the Watchers Council didn't even know she existed until Merrick stumbled across her, while hunting after Lothos."  
  
"So Merrick survived in your reality?"  
  
"No, the Master killed him shortly after he escaped from the tunnels under Sunnydale, and only then did the council activate Mr. Giles as Buffy's Watcher. Giles was already there, though, he was the Librarian at Sunnydale High."  
  
"Consider yourself lucky. Instead of Willow teaching me how to be a hacker, like she did YOU, Dawn, she taught ME the Dark Arts, so that I could learn how to harness the power of the Key. That's how I got all these scars." Dawn Number 4 said.  
  
"What? Why? Younger Dawn asked, fearful sounding.  
  
"Blood. The power of the Key rests in our blood, Dawn. At first, I needed to actually bleed in order to summon its power, but now I can just call upon it through willpower alone."  
  
"WHAT? But I thought that would destroy the universe, by tearing down the walls between realities?" Older Dawn said.  
  
"In the ritual Glory's scabby leper hobbit followers used, yeah. But used properly, it can unlock the doors between worlds.. or lock them." Dawn Number 4 replied, shrugging. "It's really all a matter of applied Will. Just as all magick is."  
  
"Great. One me is a Slayer who used to be a Key, one's a Key who is a recovering 'cutting' freak, and one me is a seventeen year-old with Blade- style Scooby issues. Why can't we just be normal?" Younger Dawn asked.  
  
"Hey, with the life we lead, I'm probably as close to 'normal' as we are going to get. And that's not very. Heck, the first guy we end up necking with turns out to be a vamp, who wanted to turn me. If it hadn't been for Buffy, Giles, and Spike, we'd have been having much bigger 'Blade' issues, believe me." Older Dawn pointed out.  
  
"Hmmph. I'd've staked him." Younger Dawn dismissed the idea.  
  
"Yeah, we DID, but who was going to keep his buddies from turning us, if they hadn't shown up? And normal isn't as great as it sometimes seems to be. Reilly was as close to normal as Buffy ever got, and I for one don't really want to imagine HIM as my brother-in-law, do you?"  
  
"Spike makes a better Brother-in-Law, anyway." Older Dawn and Slayer Dawn suddenly stared at Dawn Number 4 as if she'd grown a second head. "What? Dimension traveler, remember? I visited a world where Willow's My Will Be Done spell never ended."  
  
"Why not?"  
  
"A badly phrased wish, and she accidentally willed herself dead. Xander and Anya became Vengeance Demons, and Buffy and Spike ended up married. They have a sweet kid, though. Don't ask."  
  
"Is their Giles still blind?"  
  
"Yeah, but he's adjusted, though. He says that he can really appreciate his record collection better, now. Him and Mom have shacked up, their mom, not my mom, he's definitely not as old looking as your Giles is."  
  
"Maybe he's happy, that tends to take years off. He hasn't been that happy since Jenny died."  
  
"Maybe."  
  
TBC. 


	8. Bringing Up Xander

Disclaimer: All Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel: the Series characters belong to Joss Wheadon and Mutant Enemy. Like so many others, I'm just playing in his sandbox.  
  
Author's Notes: I heartily apologize to BloodyMiri, MadRog, Kantarya, Kallysten, and all the other fic writers who helped inspire this story, and inspired the various Buffys, Spikes, Willows, Xanders, Anyankas, and Taras who collide in this mess I'm working on.  
  
Without Shrimp, ch. 8  
  
"Giles was right, I think." Xander said to himself, setting down the moving box. "I mean, ever since we came back, I think we created another timeline, an alternate reality. Here I am, helping you and An move into our new place, and I don't remember that happening for another two weeks, and in my memories, everybody was helping. Not just me, me, and An. And I definitely think I'd remember us being assisted by a one-eyed me."  
  
"Same here," the younger Xander tossed back, pausing while assembling the bed. "Say, Dead-boy Jr. didn't help, did he? Huh. If he did, he probably swiped half the silver, and a couple of beers. Good thing you are helping, instead, then, probably saved me a few hundred in replacement costs."  
  
"We don't have any actual silver silverware, remember? Although he did have more than his share of the beers." He shook his head. "Look, lay off Spike, okay? I know that right now, he's slime, but he gets better."  
  
"Don't tell me the girls have gotten you to fall for that too? C'mon, we both know he's evil, soulless slime! I mean, c'mon! He's a vampire, a demon!"  
  
"And Anya's a Vengeance Demon, remember? I love her, too, Xander, but she caused more death and destruction over an entire millennia than Spike ever did, and neither of them regret it one bit. We forgive her. Eventually, we got over him being a bloodsucker, too."  
  
Anya stood in the doorway, just outside of their line of sight. The former demon bit her lip, and kept quiet, dreading what she might overhear, but wanting them to be able to talk freely.  
  
"Anya's an EX-Vengeance demon, remember? No amulet, no powers, she's just a normal, human girl. Spike's a soulless fiend."  
  
"Look, me, if it weren't for Spike, we'd either be dead, or we'd be a blind ex-construction worker, instead of a one-eyed construction worker. Caleb had us dead to rights, he'd already knocked out Faith and killed two potential slayers, and Spike rescued us when he tried to put his thumbs in my brain!" Xander sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. "Look, I'm not saying he's the greatest thing since sliced bread, but jeez, man, we're the one with the Sight! We can see things as they really ARE, but all you're seeing is old hurts and prejudices. Angel isn't Spike, and Spike isn't Angelus. William the Bloody didn't kill Jessie, Darla did! And then WE killed the demon wearing his body. And will you please quit hating Angel but hanging on his every word? He lied about a few things he told us, like Demons can't love, or change their ways. The fact is, most don't want to, but some can, and do, without curses or grand prophesies to force them to be good-guys. Anya is STILL a Vengeance Demon, whether we like it or not, powerless and mortal, but still a demon. And I know she sure as hell loves you! Just don't break her heart like I did."  
  
The younger Xander put down the crescent wrench he held, and walked over to where his older counterpart sat. "What do you mean, like YOU did? What did you, I mean we, do to her?"  
  
"I mean, grow the fuck up, Alexander Lavelle Harris. Grow the fuck up. I love her, you love her, but for god's sake, you're NOT the fucking drunken asshole who raised us, and she's not our mother, okay? Unlike them, we've had Giles to be our dad, and Joyce to be our mom! We KNOW what REAL parents are supposed to be like, and we don't have to follow in the footsteps of the jerks who messed US up so badly!" He looked up into his younger self's eyes. "Before you propose to her, straighten yourself up and grow a pair before you realize what you're at risk of turning into, and end up leaving Anya at the altar in order to save HER life!"  
  
"What did you do?!?"  
  
"The day our wedding, someone showed me what the future would've been like if we'd gone ahead from that point. Seventeen years into the future, if the person I WAS at that point in my life married Anya, we would have snapped during a fight, and-" Xander stopped, trying not to throw up over the memory of what Anya's ex-boyfriend showed him.  
  
"And? And? And what?"  
  
"And we'd have grabbed the frying pan off of the stove-top, and bludgeoned Anya to death. We'd spent twenty-four years honing our skills killing demons, and we were drunk, and the reflex kicked in. We killed her. Or would have, if I didn't leave her." Xander looked up at his younger self. "YOU don't have to make that choice, not if you grow the fuck up, NOW, sort out your doubts, your fears, your prejudices and feelings, before you go down that path! You could go and have a happy life with your Anya, or finally see Willow for who she is and cherish her when Tara dies, or hell, even wait for Faith when she breaks out of prison, but you don't need to make the mistakes I DID!" Xander stood up, and grabbed his jacket, and stormed through the doorway, and down the street.  
  
"Hey! Hey! Get back here, you asshole!" Younger Xander yelled. "Damn it!" He threw the crescent wrench down, and stalked into the kitchen. He opened the fridge, where he nearly grabbed a beer, before he settled on a cola. Then he noticed that the kitchen was only half-unpacked. "Anya? Anya?"  
  
2 hours later-  
  
Xander sat at a bench in Wilkins Park, wondering if his younger self would even hear any of the advice he gave him, much less follow any of it.  
  
"You know, Xander Harris, for someone who gives such excellent advice, you don't seem to use much yourself."  
  
"Anya?" He looked up to see a teary, but smiling Anya Jenkins looking over at him.  
  
"Hey. Great future we have, ain't it. Either you kill me, or you dump me and someone else kills me, huh? Guess that's what being mortal is all about, huh?" Her voice strained in wry bitterness.  
  
"Or my younger self gets his head out of his ass, and marries you knowing full well what a lucky guy he is, and learns to accept that some demons are worth loving, and trusting." He shook his head. "Guess you overheard us, huh?"  
  
"Guess so. So, you really loved me enough to save me from yourself, huh, Xander? Do you know how stupid that sounds?"  
  
"It seemed like the only real choice, at the time. If it's any consolation, you'd gone back to the business, so I didn't actually kill you, but I didn't want to see myself hurting you like that, regardless." He gave her a long, lingering look. "And Anya? Will you promise to do something, for me, AND for yourself?"  
  
"What, swear something dumb like not regaining my powers and hunting you down when you eventually leave me?" She asked, a faint hint of ire coloring her words, creeping in past the bitterness.  
  
"No. I want you to promise to finally become YOURSELF. Quit trying to be what you think I want you to be, or even what I think I want you to be. You've spent the last millennia and a half trying to be what you DO, instead of who you ARE. After we went our separate ways, I actually got to know the real Anya, and I loved her even more than the person you tried so hard to pretend to be. She's tough, witty, sarcastic and funny. Of course, she's also crude, crass, and way too direct and factual for most people, but she's a good person."  
  
"Like you and your precious Scooby's say I am, now?"  
  
"Even more so, Anya, even more so. And if I had another chance with you, I would take it in a heartbeat." The two got up off of the park bench. "Say, An?"  
  
"Yes, Xander?" She replied as he put an arm around her.  
  
"Got any wooden stakes on you?"  
  
"Not at the moment, no."  
  
"Then I think we'd better get out of the park at night, and get on over to the Magic Box. I'm pretty sure Giles 1 or 2 can give us a ride to our various homes from there."  
  
TBC. 


	9. Slayer Convention

Disclaimer: All Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel: the Series characters belong to Joss Wheadon and Mutant Enemy. Like so many others, I'm just playing in his sandbox.  
  
Author's Notes: After this chapter, only three others will be done. Two different endings, one will be my originally planned ending, the other a few of you have begged for, and then an epilogue to the original ending. My thanks to BloodyMiri, MadRog, Kantarya, Kallysten, Nautibitz, and all the other wonderful Buffy-fic writers who inspired this, I dearly hope I haven't offended any of you by utilizing your specific 'verses in this chapter.  
  
Author's Notes (2): For those who want to keep track, there are technically 14 Buffy Summers' in the Magic box, not counting the main time- line Post Season 7 Buffy and the Early Season 5 Buffy. In order of appearance- 'Buffy the Vampire/Slayer'? Unfortunately, I've lost the website that stored that fic, so I've unfortunately forgotten. Not mine, though. Buffy 'Unhappily Married With Angelus', as I like to call her? Same story (but, not the same fic). Buffy 'I'm with Willow' could be from almost any fic found at With Her Always, but springs from 'Prisms', by Mad Hamlet. Anyone who's stopped over at Nautibitz' website can recognize Bunny Buffy, from the story she's taken over from another author. Once again, fully admitting she's not mine! The next Buffy in line is Days in the Sun Buffy, who I hope I haven't mangled more than her author, Kallysten, pointed out, when I asked her opinion. The Buffy who's Spike Sanshu-ed? That's the sole one I came up with, see 'Resurrection', if you have the stomach. 'Joan Giles' Buffy? She could be one of millions, but this one belongs to Danielle. And the last appearing Buffy is MadRog's, from her Who Is Who/Relentless Revenge fics.  
  
Without Shrimp, ch. 9  
  
"All right, let the multi-dimensional Slayer convention commence!" Dawn 1 and Power-of-the-Key Dawn yelled, smirking.  
  
"Dawnie, I love you, but don't let the door hit you on the way out." Buffy 1 replied, shoo-ing the pair out of the magic box. "Younger Buffy and I need to be alone for this."  
  
"Alone?" Dawn 1 laughed, "Buffy, just look at how many of YOU are in there? It's a total Buffy convention! Okay, okay, have fun!" Her and the Alternate Dawn laughed and stepped out, climbing into Joyce's crowded car.  
  
"We should be out patrolling right now. Why are we having to do this?" Younger Buffy asked, looking around at the veritable gang of Buffy in the room.  
  
"Because Dawn and our friends seem to think it will be a learning experience, apparently. And right now, we both know that Vampire activity in Sunnydale is at an all time low."  
  
"Speak for yourself." One Buffy nearby snarled.  
  
"Cranky much?" Younger Buffy asked.  
  
That Buffy slipped from a human seeming guise into game-face. "Since the First Evil knew that me being back from the dead was throwing the Slayer bloodline out of whack, Willow and Faith had Angelus SIRE me, and Willow used Spike's soul to ensoul me. Funny, considering they didn't want Spike and me doing anything with each other, now he's dead, and I'm sort of spiritually married to him. So, yeah, I'm a bit cranky!" Both Buffy 1 and Younger Buffy recoiled from this alternate version of them.  
  
"Hope she's the only one of us like that. Buffy, the Vampire/Slayer?" Buffy 1 nervously quipped.  
  
"That was always my greatest fear, becoming one of THEM." Younger Buffy shuddered. "And what was with her saying she got Spike's soul? He's soulless, Angel has a soul.."  
  
"You know Angel, he has a tendency to lose keys, socks, his soul. Right, not funny. Eventually, Spike goes out and wins a soul of his own, not as a curse, but as a reward."  
  
"WHAT? That's SO not fair! Angel deserves to have his soul and keep it! Why should Spike be granted one that's NOT a curse?"  
  
"I have a better question. Look, we both love Angel, right? He's our soul- mate, correct?"  
  
"YES!" Younger Buffy seized the statement with an almost fanatical fervor.  
  
'Oh, boy, have I got a lot to learn' Buffy 1 thought. "Okay, here's a test. ATTENTION! Excuse me, may I have your attention, please?" Buffy 1 asked the small crowd of alternate selves, many of whom had been gossiping or comparing notes and pictures. "Okay, I have a few questions we need to ask, in order to establish a few things. First off, how many of us here ended up with Angel, after Sunnydale?"  
  
Two Buffy's raised their hands.  
  
"Two, okay. How many of you are TRULY happily married to him, or otherwise happy, regardless of your marital status?"  
  
The one on the left hesitated, then lowered her hand. "I-" she whispered "I love him, but he won't let me be the Slayer, anymore, now that he's human, and we're married."  
  
"How many of you are totally single, I mean completely unattached?"  
  
Five hands went up, including Buffy 1's, Buffy the Vampire/Slayer, and Younger Buffy.  
  
"How many are with Reilly Finn?"  
  
Not a hand raised.  
  
"With some other human?"  
  
One hand raised. "I'm with.." she looked around nervously at the other Buffy's, "I'm with Willow."  
  
'Okay,' thought Buffy 1, "now for the question we're both dreading, but for different reasons.'  
  
"How many of me here are with Spike?"  
  
All the remaining eight Buffy's raised their hands. Two of whom were quite obviously expecting.  
  
"Willow accidentally turned us both into rabbits, then Xander made the mistake of putting us into the same cage. No bunny jokes, please?" She asked her fellow Buffy's.  
  
"Well, at least that was an honest accident. The Watchers Council kidnapped me and Spike, in order to produce a new Slayer bloodline they thought they could control from birth." At the other Buffy's aghast reactions, she assured the others, "We got away, and we got revenge, too. Spike, " This Buffy paused, "Spike HAS changed. He proved it to me as he took care of us, hiding out in London. He really does love us. We even got married." She held up her left hand, to proudly display the wedding band. "This makes our third, it's a girl. Got the sonogram to prove it!"  
  
"Er, vamp, dead, ergo shooting blanks, HOW?" One Buffy asked.  
  
"PROPHECY" Three other Buffy's added in response. Multiple pairs of eyes rolled. 'Why was it that EVERYTHING in our life/lives has some kind of prophecy attached to it?' More than one Buffy thought.  
  
"Okay, timeline check. How many of me are here from 2003?" Four hands raised. Buffy one arched an eyebrow. "How many have had to face the First Evil, in that year?" Three.  
  
"How many of you are from 2002?" One. "2001?" The I'm-With-Willow Buffy raised her hand. "2000?" Three, counting Younger Buffy and Bunny Buffy. "Later than 2003?" Three more.  
  
Younger Buffy sat down, a despondent look on her face. "All these different me's, and only two of them are with Angel? WHY? Are we just plain doomed?"  
  
"Hey. This is just a few of the various us's from across the multiverse, Buffy. Personally, I think I'd be much more weirded out by seeing a Buffy from a universe where we ended up with Oz or Tara than the whole lack of Angel thing."  
  
"HOW can you be so COLD about that? You're me, from MY future, right? Why aren't you freaking out about this?!?"  
  
"Okay, first, I've had a bit of time to distance myself from the whole Angel angst thing. As much as a part of me will always love Angel, the fact is, HE LEFT. He decided all on his own, what would be the best thing for BOTH of us, as if MY feelings on the issue didn't matter."  
  
"And seeing so many of us with Spike doesn't freak you out? WHY N-" Younger Buffy blanched as the realization hit her. "Oh, no. You and he-" she blinked, "He and I.. HOW COULD YOU? He's a monster! A KILLER! The only thing holding him back is the chip! If that were gone, he'd be a rampaging killing machine, again!"  
  
"Spike.. look, after something.. bad happens, Spike is the only one of our friends who didn't want me to just go back to being Same Old Buffy. He actually cares. When I actually found out about the - about Mom's tumor, he and I had a fight, before. He came to our house, with a shotgun. He could've killed me, but when he saw me sitting on the porch, just this side of being in tears, he stopped. He asked what was wrong, and he kept me company, all night. When I was at my lowest, he was my strength. He always stood at my side, even when no one else would. Not Xander, not Willow, not even Dawn." she nudged her younger self. "What I told Angel was true. Spike, well, he's in my heart. I just wish I'd told him, before-"  
  
At that point, Buffy 1 began to tear up, and turned away. Maternity Buffy put away the miniature photo album she'd been showing some of the other Slayers, and came over. She put her arm around Buffy 1, and asked "You wish you'd told him before what?"  
  
"Down inside the Hellmouth, we were facing the Turak-Han along with the other Slayers Willow had activated. The amulet Angel brought, the Champion Amulet, I gave it to Spike. He used it to destroy them, the army the First was creating." She sniffled. "He looked so, I dunno, the only other time I'd ever seen him in daylight, was when he wore the Gem of Amarra. He looked so radiant. When the cavern started to collapse, I tried to get him to leave, but he was determined to stop the Bringers and the Uber-vamps, even if it killed him. And we both knew, right then, that it was going to." She looked at the other Buffy and gave a sad, wan, smile. "I knew, right then, it was the last chance I ever had. So, I told him. I told him I loved him. AND HE DIDN'T BELIEVE ME!"  
  
Suddenly, Buffy 1 was being held in a group hug, as Younger Buffy looked on, not knowing how to feel, and the two Married-To-Angel Buffy's looked nervously at each other.  
  
"Shh. He knew, Buffy, he knew. Think. If he'd said anything else, would you have left?" A whisper in her ear asked her.  
  
"NO!"  
  
"Do you think he wouldn't do anything, ANYTHING to keep you, or Mom, or Dawn from harm?" Muffled, sniffling agreement-like noise. "Okay. So. What would Spike say in order to save your life, in that situation?"  
  
Buffy 1 closed her eyes, and whispered: "No you don't, Pet. But thanks for saying it, anyway. Now, go."  
  
Another Buffy said, hesitantly, to another, just out of Buffy 1's earshot, "He may have survived. Or, should I say, been resurrected. She should check with Angel and his crew, he may have Sanshu-ed. My Spike did. He's sort of a living vampire, now."  
  
Buffy 1 sniffled and thanked the pregnant Buffy. "Thank you. You're pretty lucky, you know."  
  
"I didn't think so at first, but I do, now. My Spike and I , we may not have our days in the sun, but we have our days, anyway."  
  
"Hey, at least you knew who you were and who you were marrying when you and Spike hitched. I went to the alter with him as Joan and Randy Giles." Another laughed. "We spent a year and a half under Willow's Tabula Rasa spell, before Alex, I mean Xander, broke the crystal moving a dresser in their apartment."  
  
"Hey, since we're mostly together with Spike, here, I have a question?" Another Buffy asked. "Is MY Spike the only one with a soul?"  
  
"No," Buffy 1 replied, "Mine has one, too. How did Your Spike get his?"  
  
"Well, at first we thought he'd died there, but he got it from a demon in Africa."  
  
Buffy 1's blood ran cold. "You said you THOUGHT he died?"  
  
"Anya and Giles ran into him in London. Didn't tell ME, of course. THEN Dawn found out, THEN Willow! Except for Xander, I was last to know!"  
  
Four hours later, after more tears and laughter, the Trans-dimensional Slayer Convention of 2000, began to break up. Various Buffy's found the portals back to their own universes, and slowly dispersed. Maternity Buffy smiled at Buffy 1 and said, "Too bad we're going to forget what we all learned here after we go back. I'd like to keep in touch with you, I mean me, I mean, you."  
  
"Well, that's the way D'Hoffrynn set this up. I'm the only Buffy who gets to remember what I learned here. Unless, you get YOUR Willow to do sort of a reverse Tabula Rasa on you when you get back.."  
  
"If I forget all this, how would I remember to get her to do that?"  
  
"Point. Okay, scratch that idea. Maybe if we write ourselves notes?"  
  
"Only if the ink doesn't erase upon going home."  
  
Buffy 1 sighed and threw her hands up in the air. "Fine! Maybe if I got Willow to try it from MY home dimension, then?" Maternity Buffy shook her head and laughed, then stepped through the portal.  
  
Younger Buffy looked on at her older self. "All fine and dandy for you, how do I deal with all this?"  
  
"That's up to you. I'd suggest you do it the same way we always have. Look at all the facts, think about all the variables, then throw all that careful thought out the window, and go from the gut. It hasn't failed us so far." Except with Spike, she thought. "Just one thing I'd suggest."  
  
"Yes?"  
  
"If you ever DO start to have feelings for someone you think you shouldn't, and the only reason you think you shouldn't is fear of what Giles and the rest of the Scoobies might say, " Buffy said, looking her younger self in the eye, "remember that if you don't get to decide who THEY should be with, they don't get to decide who YOU should be with. You may be the Slayer, but you're not a doll for them to put on a shelf, and pose for displays. It's your life, not theirs. Remember that."  
  
"okay."  
  
TBC. 


	10. Original Ending

Without Shrimp, ch. 10 A  
  
Disclaimer: All Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel: the Series characters belong to Joss Wheadon and Mutant Enemy. Like so many others, I'm just playing in his sandbox.  
  
Author's Notes: Okay, here it is, the originally planned ending to this Fic. I originally planned for this story to be a learning experience for these characters which we have all grown to love, for the Scoobies to leave behind some of the scars that were weighing them down. I'd like to dedicate this entire Fic, both versions to those fans like me who both loved, dreaded, and cried over the episodes 'the Body' and 'Seeing Red'; to the Tara fans, who like me, never knew how much we were going to miss the character Amber Benson brought to life, or Joyce, who's appearances to Buffy in season 7 (by actress Christine Southerland) made me miss our 'Mom' all over again. One thing I never set out, when I planned this Fic, was to pull a Bill and Ted, and change history for our gang. If only because doing so would be a betrayal of the memory of Tara and Joyce. That said, as much as I love Tara, I'm still a die-hard Buffy/Spike, Xander/Willow shipper. My thanks to BloodyMiri, MadRog, Kantarya, Kallysten, Nautibitz, and all the other wonderful Buffy-fic writers who inspired this, I pray I haven't offended any of you by utilizing your specific 'verses in the previous chapters.  
  
"Well, then. It would appear that this is it, as you Americans are wont to say." Giles said, looking at the people assembled within the Magic Box. "This certainly has been an odd week, even by Sunnydale standards, as I'm sure we can all agree." This earned him laughter, from both the modern Scoobies, and the Scoobies of two years ago. Even Joyce, Spike, and his own younger counterpart laughed.  
  
"Look," Xander said, "I'm sorry that we've turned your lives upside down, and who knows, maybe our younger selves won't even remember what happened once we step back through the portal, but if any of you do.. well, I hope that we've all gotten something from all this. Maybe Giles is right, and we've just created another branch on the timeline by doing all this. Guess we won't know until we go back. But just seeing you all again, alive and healthy.. For me, it was worth it."  
  
"I can't say the exact same thing, but, personally, I'm hoping we can prevent some of the things we learned about that may come. I'm not convinced that you guys are from OUR future, but at least we can make sure to try and plan around certain events." His younger self added.  
  
Willow (year 2000 version) silently agreed, deciding to research in spells to make windows bulletproof.  
  
Tara stepped forward, to the Willow from the future, and looked her square in the eyes. "Remember what I said, Willow Rosenberg. I'm going to hold you to that."  
  
"I remember. I don't know if I CAN, but I'll try. For you."  
  
"No. For you, Willow." Tara replied. Willow reached out, took Tara's hand, and squeezed it. Tara smiled.  
  
"I just hope I don't throw up all over Xander's floor after we go back." Dawn said, eliciting another laugh from all. "I know that Me and myself are STILL a bit queasy in each other's presence, so hopefully, time travel the other direction won't make it temporarily worse." She got somber for a second. "Look, I just want you to know, I love you guys, all of you."  
  
Both Dawns got swept up into hugs, and then the Dawns each moved into the back of each group, so that any teariness or sniffles would be less noticeable.  
  
"Well, you guys know me, not really big with the speeches.." please, don't let the Scoobies say anything right now, Buffy thought, "anyway, everything I needed to say this week, I've already said, y'know? I just.. what Dawn said, y'know?" Buffy finished, staring at her fashionable-yet- affordable-boots.  
  
"Hey, I know most of you either really, really hate me, or at least distrust me, and I don't blame any of you one bit. I needed to serve out my time until Angel and Buffy needed me, and I earned that pardon fair and square, afterwards. I just-" Buffy arched an eyebrow at Faith's hesitance. "I just wish I hadn't made those mistakes in the first place."  
  
Everyone winced and held their breath for a second.  
  
"Hey, I'm just happy that Joyce let us photocopy her secret recipe for her lasagna and her chocolate chip cookie and cocoa recipes!" Xander joked, breaking the tension, amidst laughter and a high-five from his younger counterpart.  
  
"Giles?" Tara quietly asked the older version of the ex-librarian she knew, "You've been kind of avoiding looking at me and my Willow ever since your turn at meeting your alternate selves. Is there something wrong?"  
  
"Er, oh, NO, Tara, nothing at all!" He pulled off his glasses and began furiously cleaning them. "Why do you ask?"  
  
"Well, your Willow let MY Willow and I come along when she talked to her other selves from across dimensions." Tara gave a tiny, knowing smile; "It seems one of the Willows from another Sunnydale told us of her world, and in it, well, lets just say, Truth or Dare games after too much bourbon may have people ending up in bed with people you don't expect them to, or so I hear. From what I understand, you were very kind and gentle, and even if I myself don't swing that way, I'd like to say thank you, anyway."  
  
"Yes, well, um-"  
  
Tara laughed and returned to the side of Younger Willow.  
  
Joyce stepped forward, and looked at the prime Watcher.  
  
"Rupert, I've become aware of certain things that.. might or might not happen in the near future. You might not be always successful with Buffy, but you do try and be a father to her. So. Thank you for that. And there's one more thing I want to say to you, since I may not ever have this chance again.."  
  
Joyce grabbed Rupert Giles by the collar, pulling him into a lip-lock that shocked him, both Buffy's, and both Dawn's, at that!  
  
Spike grinned viciously, and whispered 'Way to go, mum. Might loosen the ponce up, a bit.' He turned and slipped outside as the sun was setting, slipping into the alley. Once again, he pulled out the envelope that the Buffy from the future had given him the night before.  
  
'Spike', the letter read, 'this letter is part apology, and part confession. The apology is for the way I've treated you ever since Willow's botched spell. You know the one I'm talking about. Anyway, since then, I'd tried so hard to forget what I felt during the time we were engaged, and the way you acted. Like a person. I had to remember that you were my mortal enemy, one of them, Vampires, with a capital V. Yes, you tried to kill us a few times since, but you helped more than hindered, and eventually, you end up proving yourself. Love isn't brains, you told me once, and you were right. Because if you'd had any, you'd have left Sunnydale, and never come back. But you did. And in the numerous times you did, you went from being my enemy, to being my friend, to being.. and hold on here, this is something you never expected to hear in your wildest dreams.. someone I love. Yes, you heard me. I love you. I just wish I'd said it, before you'd gone all dust and ashes on me. Remember that, Spike. Love, Buffy'  
  
Inside, Xander and Willow had both gotten mischievous looks on their faces and mock-grabbed for their younger selves partners.. then, they mock grabbed for each other's partners.  
  
"Okay, okay, you two, that's enough!" Dawn laughed. "Let's go."  
  
Joyce, Dawn, Buffy, Willow, Xander, Anya, and Giles watched as the air in the doorway into the training room took on a silvery, mercury-like sheen, and the Scoobies from the future stepped through, one by one. As the ripples of the last one traced across the doorway, the silvery stuff faded.  
  
Xander stepped back into his bedroom in Cleveland.  
  
Damn it.  
  
He knew better, but he'd been hoping against hope.  
  
Buffy, Faith, Dawn, and Giles stepped out behind him.  
  
"Better go call Robin, say hi." Faith said, weakly.  
  
"It was nice, y'know, Buff, seeing them again.. one last time." Dawn whispered to her sister.  
  
"Yeah, yeah, it was." Buffy replied, hoarsely. Each of them turned, and went to their separate bedrooms.  
  
Giles stepped out into the hallway. "I'm going to go e-mail the Coven and the new Council recruits, let them know of our where-abouts. Then, I'm probably going down to the pub to have a good, stiff drink. Anyone care to join me?"  
  
"Later, maybe, Giles. We-" Willow paused, and looked over her shoulder. "Xander and I have things we need to discuss. People to mourn, this time, without any black hair dye or destroying the world."  
  
"Good job, then. I'm proud of you. All of you. You do know that?"  
  
"Yes, Giles." Willow said the name the way other people would have said 'Dad'. "We love you, too." And shut the door.  
  
Rupert Giles looked down at the glasses in his hands. He started to consider getting contact lenses, then decided perhaps he should look into laser correction treatments. He looked back at Xander's door, and sighed. Not a regretful sigh, but an accepting one.  
  
There would be tears, and perhaps words said in the heat of anger and re- opened hurts, but at least this time, he knew, there would be healing.  
  
He too, had hoped against hope that he had been wrong, that somehow the space-time continuum would be changed upon their return to 2003. Days like this, he missed Jenny, and Joyce. Even Anya's fumbling affection towards him that she'd developed after Willow's horrific Tabula Rasa spell. There was always Olivia, who he loved dearly, as both a lover and a friend, but he just wasn't In Love with her, like he'd been with Jenny or Joyce, either one. He put on his coat, and stepped outside. A walk to the corner café might do him some good.  
  
Buffy. Willow Xander. Dawn. They were his children, each of them, in a sense. For all of his fears about this wish Xander had made, It seems to have come out for the best. They could finally let go of their grief, that each had been secretly holding on to after Sunnydale. They could finally heal. And he could finally watch his children bloom, as they hadn't since their college days, when Buffy's tragic death stunted them all like a killing frost in the garden of their lives.  
  
Dear god, what was Andrew doing out here this late at night? And who is that he was sitting with? No, it couldn't be-  
  
A group of café patrons blocked his view for a second, and when they moved out of his way, whoever it had been was gone.  
  
Giles sat down.  
  
"Andrew, who was that lady you were talking to?"  
  
"Oh, her? Just a friend, from out of town. She was only going to be here for tonight, business flight, you know, rush, rush, rush!" Andrew smiled brightly.  
  
Giles sat back and ordered a mocha with extra espresso. He should have realized. After all, D'Hoffrynn had never destroyed her amulet, just told her she 'was out'. You don't kill a Vengeance Demon by chopping her from shoulder to hip with a knife. Or burying them under 500 tons of rubble. He smiled and lifted his cup to Andrew's.  
  
"To old friends, long departed."  
  
The End, Epilogue to follow. 


	11. Alternate Ending

Without Shrimp, ch. 10 b (Alternate Ending)  
  
Disclaimer: All Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel: the Series characters belong to Joss Wheadon and Mutant Enemy. Like so many others, I'm just playing in his sandbox.  
  
Author's Notes: Okay, here it is, the alternate ending to this Fic. If you read ending A, you already know what I had originally planned for this story. Like so many things, though, this fic took on a life of it's own, and like many of the fans and reviewers, I began wondering 'What if?" I'd like to dedicate this entire Fic, both versions to those fans like me who both loved, dreaded, and cried over the episodes 'the Body' and 'Seeing Red'; to the Tara fans, who like me, never knew how much we were going to miss the character Amber Benson brought to life, or Joyce, who's appearances to Buffy in season 7 (by actress Christine Southerland) made me miss our 'Mom' all over again. That said, as much as I love Tara, I'm still a die-hard Buffy/Spike, Xander/Willow shipper. My thanks to BloodyMiri, MadRog, Kantarya, Kallysten, Nautibitz, and all the other wonderful Buffy- fic writers who inspired this, I pray I haven't offended any of you by utilizing your specific 'verses in the previous chapters.  
  
"Well, then. It would appear that this is it, as you Americans are wont to say." Giles said, looking at the people assembled within the Magic Box. "This certainly has been an odd week, even by Sunnydale standards, as I'm sure we can all agree." This earned him laughter, from both the modern Scoobies, and the Scoobies of two years ago. Even Joyce, Spike, and his own younger counterpart laughed.  
  
"Look," Xander said, "I'm sorry that we've turned your lives upside down, and who knows, maybe our younger selves won't even remember what happened once we step back through the portal, but if any of you do.. well, I hope that we've all gotten something from all this. Maybe Giles is right, and we've just created another branch on the timeline by doing all this. Guess we won't know until we go back. But just seeing you all again, alive and healthy.. For me, it was worth it."  
  
"I can't say the exact same thing, but, personally, I'm hoping we can prevent some of the things we learned about that may come. I'm not convinced that you guys are from OUR future, but at least we can make sure to try and plan around certain events." His younger self added.  
  
Willow (year 2000 version) silently agreed, deciding to research in spells to make windows bulletproof.  
  
Tara stepped forward, to the Willow from the future, and looked her square in the eyes. "Remember what I said, Willow Rosenberg. I'm going to hold you to that."  
  
"I remember. I don't know if I CAN, but I'll try. For you."  
  
"No. For you, Willow." Tara replied. Willow reached out, took Tara's hand, and squeezed it. Tara smiled.  
  
"I just hope I don't throw up all over Xander's floor after we go back." Dawn said, eliciting another laugh from all. "I know that Me and myself are STILL a bit queasy in each other's presence, so hopefully, time travel the other direction won't make it temporarily worse." She got somber for a second. "Look, I just want you to know, I love you guys, all of you."  
  
Both Dawns got swept up into hugs, and then the Dawns each moved into the back of each group, so that any teariness or sniffles would be less noticeable.  
  
"Well, you guys know me, not really big with the speeches.." please, don't let the Scoobies say anything right now, Buffy thought, "anyway, everything I needed to say this week, I've already said, y'know? I just.. what Dawn said, y'know?" Buffy finished, staring at her fashionable-yet- affordable-boots.  
  
"Hey, I know most of you either really, really hate me, or at least distrust me, and I don't blame any of you one bit. I needed to serve out my time until Angel and Buffy needed me, and I earned that pardon fair and square, afterwards. I just-" Buffy arched an eyebrow at Faith's hesitance. "I just wish I hadn't made those mistakes in the first place."  
  
Everyone winced and held their breath for a second.  
  
"Hey, I'm just happy that Joyce let us photocopy her secret recipe for her lasagna and her chocolate chip cookie and cocoa recipes!" Xander joked, breaking the tension, amidst laughter and a high-five from his younger counterpart.  
  
"Giles?" Tara quietly asked the older version of the ex-librarian she knew, "You've been kind of avoiding looking at me and my Willow ever since your turn at meeting your alternate selves. Is there something wrong?"  
  
"Er, oh, NO, Tara, nothing at all!" He pulled off his glasses and began furiously cleaning them. "Why do you ask?"  
  
"Well, your Willow let MY Willow and I come along when she talked to her other selves from across dimensions." Tara gave a tiny, knowing smile; "It seems one of the Willows from another Sunnydale told us of her world, and in it, well, lets just say, Truth or Dare games after too much bourbon may have people ending up in bed with people you don't expect them to, or so I hear. From what I understand, you were very kind and gentle, and even if I myself don't swing that way, I'd like to say thank you, anyway."  
  
"Yes, well, um-"  
  
Tara laughed and returned to the side of Younger Willow.  
  
Joyce stepped forward, and looked at the prime Watcher.  
  
"Rupert, I've become aware of certain things that.. might or might not happen in the near future. You might not be always successful with Buffy, but you do try and be a father to her. So. Thank you for that. And there's one more thing I want to say to you, since I may not ever have this chance again.."  
  
Joyce grabbed Rupert Giles by the collar, pulling him into a lip-lock that shocked him, both Buffy's, and both Dawn's, at that!  
  
Spike grinned viciously, and whispered 'Way to go, mum. Might loosen the ponce up, a bit.' He turned and slipped outside as the sun was setting, slipping into the alley. Once again, he pulled out the envelope that the Buffy from the future had given him the night before.  
  
'Spike', the letter read, 'this letter is part apology, and part confession. The apology is for the way I've treated you ever since Willow's botched spell. You know the one I'm talking about. Anyway, since then, I'd tried so hard to forget what I felt during the time we were engaged, and the way you acted. Like a person. I had to remember that you were my mortal enemy, one of them, Vampires, with a capital V. Yes, you tried to kill us a few times since, but you helped more than hindered, and eventually, you end up proving yourself. Love isn't brains, you told me once, and you were right. Because if you'd had any, you'd have left Sunnydale, and never come back. But you did. And in the numerous times you did, you went from being my enemy, to being my friend, to being.. and hold on here, this is something you never expected to hear in your wildest dreams.. someone I love. Yes, you heard me. I love you. I just wish I'd said it, before you'd gone all dust and ashes on me. Remember that, Spike. Love, Buffy'  
  
Inside, Xander and Willow had both gotten mischievous looks on their faces and mock-grabbed for their younger selves partners.. then, they mock grabbed for each other's partners.  
  
"Okay, okay, you two, that's enough!" Dawn laughed. "Let's go."  
  
Joyce, Dawn, Buffy, Willow, Xander, Anya, and Giles watched as the air in the doorway into the training room took on a silvery, mercury-like sheen, and the Scoobies from the future stepped through, one by one. As the ripples of the last one traced across the doorway, the silvery stuff faded.  
  
Xander stepped forward into a bedroom, in a house he didn't recognize. "What the-?"  
  
Buffy, Faith, Dawn, and Giles stepped out behind him.  
  
"Who the hell ARE you people, and what're you doin' in my house?" A large angry African-American man yelled, holding a baseball bat. "Any o' you Terminators, or something?"  
  
"Er, no?" Dawn said, hiding behind Buffy.  
  
"Then get on outta my house!" The man yelled. The Scoobies made their way out the door, and Buffy pulled out her cell phone and hit auto-dial.  
  
"Hey, Killer. It's me, Buffy. Could you get Angel and his flunkies over at Wolfram and Hart to come pick us up? Where are we?" She looked down at a newspaper on the pavement, as they stepped out into a cold, windy night. "Um, looks like it's Cleveland. No, I don't know why D'Hoffrynn portal spit us out back here, instead of Sunnydale." She grinned at something the person on the other line said, "Okay, and give the Great Big Poof hell from me, too."  
  
"HEY!" Faith said, "Knock off the Angel-bashing, PLEASE? He did wrangle me a parole under his supervision, over at Wolfram and Hart."  
  
"Plus the pet-names you and Captain Peroxide toss at one another upsets my stomach, and then I can't enjoy cooking for Wills." Xander added.  
  
**Three hours later**  
  
"Okay, Giles, what went wrong?" Dawn asked the Chief Watcher. "How come we couldn't go back in time to give ourselves the warnings we remember getting?"  
  
"Possibly because we already changed the majority of what they told us, Dawn. There was absolutely nothing we could do to save Joyce, Tara was shot by Warren on the back porch when Willow and she went to go help Buffy, and Anya died saving Xander from losing an eye to that madman of an back-woods preacher."  
  
"Maybe. But at least we changed a few things. Buffy never died., she used the Scythe the other Buffy told her how to find, to kill Doc, before he could complete Glory's plan. Warren died at Spike's hands, after he'd replaced the chip with his soul. Jonathan and Andrew left town with Angel, and now work with him at Wolfram and Hart." She smiled almost maliciously at Giles. "Plus, now Xander and Willow are dating steadily, along with Buffy and Spike"  
  
"Please, don't remind me. I respect Spike, but I still wish Buffy's heart had chosen better."  
  
"PUH-leeeze, Giles, who'd have you picked? Riley? Sure I can just see the look on your face as you flew down to Iowa every three months to see her and her 6 or 7 kids... "  
  
"Well, perhaps you may have a point there, Dawn, but.."  
  
Buffy just smiled, shook her head, set the earphones on tighter, and settled back into her chair for the rest of the flight.  
  
The End. 


	12. Epilogue

Without Shrimp, ch. 11  
  
Disclaimer: All Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel: the Series characters belong to Joss Wheadon and Mutant Enemy. Like so many others, I'm just playing in his sandbox.  
  
Author's Notes: My thanks to BloodyMiri, MadRog, Kantarya, Kallysten, Nautibitz, and all the other wonderful Buffy-fic writers who inspired this, I pray I haven't offended any of you by utilizing your specific 'verses in this or previous chapters. This Chapter, by the way, is Epilogue to the original ending, 10-A.  
  
Spike stepped into the blue room at Wolfram and Hart, turned back to the doorway where Eve stood.  
  
"Go on, then. Not like I need a babysitter, now, is it?"  
  
"I thought I'd stay here, as moral support." She replied with a smirk.  
  
"Riiight.. Bollocks to that." He gazed around at the other versions of him clustered in the room. "I'm pretty sure one or two of me here is STILL the Big Bad, maybe you might not want to risk becoming an entrée."  
  
"All right, then," He said, as W & H's annoying spy left, "The Blue Room, here, can only be used for brief periods of time before the universe decides to go ka-plooey, so let's get this show on the road."  
  
"Who died and made you boss on this little outing, eh?"  
  
"The skinny bint who just left and works for the forces of darkness, that's who." Spike shook his head. Were all of him this irritating? "All right, let's make this a spot of show and tell. We all introduce ourselves, include the most recent highlights of the last four years, and whether you work on the side of the white hats, or the forces of darkness. I'm Spike, A.K.A. William the Bloody, A.K.A. William the Bloody Awful Poet. Came back to Sunnydale four and a half years ago, wanting to either kill the Slayer or shag her into the ground, till I ran afoul of some military types calling themselves the Initiative. They put a microchip into me brain keeping me from feeding on humans or hurting them personally, I started helping the Slayer and her minions in exchange for blood-money and an excuse to be close to Buffy. "  
  
"So! How many o' you lot o' randy buggers-"  
  
"Please, no comments on the name 'Randy', eh?" One Spike popped off.  
  
'Well, that answers one question,' Spike thought, "-Are still with our dark Princess Drusilla, and which one's o' you lot are with Buffy?"  
  
Two were with Dru, twelve with Buffy, four abstaining. Oh, this looks like it's gonna be a fun lot.  
  
*_*_*  
  
"Wesley?" Fred asked the ex-watcher, "It's been over five hours since Spike came back out of the blue room. He just locked himself into Dave's office, and hasn't come out. I'm starting to get worried."  
  
"Perhaps he just needs time to come to grips about certain things he may have learned about his alternate selves. Or perhaps he's discovered some things about himself he doesn't feel comfortable about, and needs time to-"  
  
"Blondie-Bear," Harmony's voice rang out, as she opened the door to the office Spike had taken refuge in, "I've got hot, fresh blood for you, and those icky wheatabix thingys you like-" suddenly, the sound of glass shattering on the door's hardwood surface like a gunshot caused everyone to jump in the office region.  
  
"AAAHHH!!!! Okay, I'll just leave these here, then-" Harmony squeaked, closing the door back, Jack Daniels trickling down one side of her face where the splash had caught her. "UM, Spike isn't ready for company, just yet." She gave Fred and Wesley an apologetic look, then went back to her desk, and began fastidiously combing the whisky out of her hair.  
  
*_*_*  
  
Spike glared at the closed oak double doors, where shards of glass and Kentucky bourbon trickled down one door. 'Sod that, me aim's off. What else has that prat got stocked in here?" He rummaged through the bar inside the office, and grabbed a bottle in each hand. Gin in this one, and "Tequila! NOW, we're talking."  
  
He staggered back around the desk, stopping to glare at the city below. He briefly entertained the thought of breaking the necro-tempered glass windows just to piss Angel off, but reconsidered it when he remembered he'd go up in dust and flames, too.  
  
He slumped down into the lush leather chair, and glanced down at the photographs two of his alternate selves had given to him, to keep.  
  
Row one: three children, two girls, and a boy, varying ages. The names on the back of the pictures gave names. William. Lisa. Joyce-Anne. Now THAT name made his undead heart ache. Both Buffy's mum, and his own. He shook his head, took a long, burning swig of tequila, before looking down at the next row.  
  
Row two. Two pictures. One infant, no name listed on the picture, just a caption, entitled 'My Princess'. The next one, Buffy, holding the infant from the previous picture. The caption on this one read, simply, 'My Everything'.  
  
Spike, the former Scourge of Europe, the Slayer of Slayers, William the Bloody Awful Poet-  
  
-put his head in his hands, and wept.  
  
End. 


End file.
